When the COVID-19 pandemic hit early last year and the world began shutting down, La Rabida quickly implemented the use of telehealth to ensure that our patients and families could continue receiving the care that they needed. We launched our telehealth services in a matter of days to ensure that care went uninterrupted. Since then, our use of telehealth has expanded, and we are now using the tool in a variety of ways.
In our outpatient setting, telehealth has been a valuable resource for families who have travel and time barriers. For example, children who are seen in our Technology Dependent Clinic (TDC) are some of our more complex patients. Many of these kids have tracheostomy tubes and rely on ventilators, many must travel to the hospital via ambulance. Telehealth has allowed our families to connect with their care teams without having to pack up and travel to the hospital. Because telehealth appointments are conducted at home, families feel more comfortable and are often more open to sharing the things that they are experiencing.
Telehealth has also been transformative in our patient transfer process. At La Rabida, many of our inpatient kids come from area neonatal intensive care units, or NICUs. Before the implementation of telehealth, a single member of our team would visit the patient at their current hospital to meet with the referring care team and family. Now, the entire La Rabida care team can take part in the hospital transfer process. These calls usually include everyone from patient care administrators, hospitalists, therapists, dietitians, respiratory therapists, and case managers. This allows every member of our team to assess the patient’s breathing, see the equipment they’re using, look at their wounds, and ask questions of the referring team. This ensures our team is better prepared when the patient arrives at La Rabida. These telehealth handoff meetings also allow the patient’s family to see La Rabida, meet the team, and ask any questions before they are transferred.
Our care teams have also been using telehealth to support our inpatient kids and avoid trips out to other hospitals with the use of our telehealth cart. This cart allows us to connect with specialists for video consultations and avoid bundling a child up and sending them out via ambulance with a nurse and respiratory therapist in tow. The cart can roll from room to room and is comprised of various components including a stethoscope, otoscope, and high-resolution dermatology camera that allow our team to do a complete physical exam. The team on the other end can see and hear everything in high definition. While this doesn’t prevent every trip, many can be avoided with the help of this technology.
Our use of telehealth has drastically improved over the last year. We are now able to utilize the technology across the hospital to help our patients and families in a number of ways.
La Rabida is grateful for The Coleman Foundation's generous support of all our telehealth initiatives.